Bibs have long been used by people to protect infants and invalids from spilled foods and liquids. Bibs have been modified to make them more efficient at catching spills such as by including pockets, attaching the bib to a table, or tray of an infant's chair, or attaching a tray to the bib.
Prior art bibs have also been modified to include for example, a bib disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 615,293 in which the lower edge forms a pocket when drawcords on the sides are fastened properly. U.S. Pat. No. 2,532,932 discloses a bib in which the lower edge attaches to the infant's chair to form a pocket and tray cover. U.S. Pat. No. 2,738,511 similarly claims a bib which covers a tray on an infant's chair and a means to attach a bowl to the tray cover. U.S. Pat. No. 2,697,222 discloses a bib in which the sides and lower edges are gathered to form a seamless pocket. U.S. Pat. No. 2,643,384 discloses a bib in which the lower edge is turned upward to form a pocket which is attached by suction cups to a surface on an infant's chair. U.S. Pat. No. 3,407,407 discloses a bib with an attached pocket that is held open by a frame.
Because such bibs would generally be used temporarily while traveling, or while sitting in a car or similar confined space, it is important that the bib be easily stored when not in use. Thus there is a need for a collapsible pocket bib.
Flexible spring materials can be formed into loops that are circular. Such circular loops can be twisted out of the plain of the single loop to collapse and fold the loop into a series of odd-numbered connected smaller loops. Folding produces a smaller multi-looped configuration relative to the plane or the extended loop (as illistrated in FIG. 13 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,784). The loop can be restored to its open single-loop configuration simply by twisting it in the opposite direction.
Recently, flexible circular loops covered with fabric have been used to make a cloth hat sold in the orient, and an automobile sunshield. The latter, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,784 comprises a pair of flexible circular loops, each covered with fabric, joined together with a fabric hinge to produce a broad elliptical shaped shield when opened.
All of the proir art modified bibs that include integral pockets formed from the lower portion of the bib have stiff supports to maintain the shape of the pocket or tray. None of the prior art bibs are reversibly collapsible into a smaller configuration of connected loops. Furthermore, although some prior art bibs include stiff supports such as plastic frames steel wire, whalebone, cane, woven horse-hair, buckram cord, India rubber or the like, none uses a spring element to create a flexible circular loop that supports the upper-edge of the bibs pocket. Finally, none of the prior art bibs disclose a reversibly collapsible configuration that enable them to be folded into a smaller multi-looped configuration for ease of storage.